Despite all the stats management, there's no combat log; you don't even get to see what you or your opponent are rolling for attacks. But even for the true D&D aficionado -- or maybe more so for them -- fighting with party management in a game about party management saps so much life from a title that's right on the brink of being much better.

So, sure--Beijing may not be gold-quality throughout, but it's the best Olympics game we've had since, well...probably ever.

As much as it pains me to say it, Tron: Evolution proves that it takes a lot more than nostalgia and shiny graphics to make an enjoyable videogame.

Double Helix obviously had good intentions, but, as a whole, Front Mission Evolved is completely unnecessary.

Despite the years of work Realtime Worlds poured into their latest creation, APB still comes off as being woefully underdeveloped, and ultimately unfinished.

It's a capable superhero action game that demonstrates that the team is getting better at crafting a Spider-Man game, but like most comic-licensed properties there is still room for improvement.

Like the show itself, Jackass: The Game is something best experienced when extremely drunk, extremely bored, or, ideally, both. But don't go getting the idea that you'll enjoy it with friends.

Double Helix obviously had good intentions, but, as a whole, Front Mission Evolved is completely unnecessary.

It's by no means a bad game, and is certainly a very admirable effort in the context of the Rush franchise, but its contemporaries ultimately outclass it.

As much as it pains me to say it, Tron: Evolution proves that it takes a lot more than nostalgia and shiny graphics to make an enjoyable videogame.

If you're looking for just having some dumb fun driving in a big sprawling city, smashing and shooting every last thing in your way, then Wheelman is a great pick. However, it never even attempts to reinvent the wheel from any other free-roaming action-adventure.

Most of what Samurai Western has going for it is a goofy atmosphere derived from jamming the samurai and western parts of the storyline awkwardly together, and piling more ludicrously anachronistic elements on top of the result.

If the idea of playing an absolutely average (and not particularly lengthy) Resident Evil adventure with incompetent A.I. allies is exciting, then hop to it.

And just in case Super Army War wasn't stripped down enough, there's no battery backup -- just a password system. It's true that portable games don't need to be as full-featured as console titles, but people have e-mailed me Flash games that are deeper than Super Army War (not to mention more fun).

To be fair, Dark Kingdom doesn't have any single game-destroying flaw, except perhaps for that murderous bastard camera. It's an average, if occasionally very frustrating example of a genre that's abundantly represented on other platforms.

The looseness of Conflict: Vietnam, from the lack of comfortable and immediate controls to the boring progression of the game, just doesn't cut it. While the idea of squad-driven combat set in the tense, emotionally-charged setting of Vietnam has potential, Conflict: Vietnam falls short in execution.

This may not be entirely fair, but I've already played better Jackass games. I've harpooned a buddy to my truck and dragged him around behind me in Crackdown. I've terrorized pedestrians in my underpants in San Andreas and heelflipped over your mother's head in Tony Hawk. My ideal Jackass game would be a rebranded Dead Rising. There are plenty of shopping carts, bowling balls, and golf clubs to do stupid crap with, and the main character already looks exactly like Johnny Knoxville.

Besides some nice CG work in the occasional cinematic, this is just a tepid return to mediocre series filled with potential never realized.

For all of Blade Kitten's low points, it pulls itself together nicely when it wants to show off.

Atari's Alone in the Dark is so busy being experimental -- giving players the tools and rules to solve problems on their own -- that it neglects the alluring experientialism of earlier titles in the series, which set a tone and pace that sparked the survival-horror genre off years before "Resident Evil" hit the scene.

Quest is easy to pick up and put back down, especially with the chapters-in-a-book framework. The swordplay is far from perfect and the adventuring itself overly simplistic sure, but its accessibility is, ultimately, its most prevailing quality.

The more leisurely Wii version is designed to the hardware's constraints, condensed into small, manageable lands, but the DS version's spread thin. Traversing the kingdom on foot causes hours of aimless wandering, and with the surprising lack of direction, I quickly became dismayed that I'd never rebuild the Sims' land.

For $10 more, you can get the exact same thing in the form of a free bonus [in "Metroid: Zero Mission"] with a top-notch remake of the game that brings its graphics, level design and story up to contemporary standards along with a cool bonus section that serves as a valuable prelude to the subsequent games. Now which one would you rather have? Think hard, now.

Still, even with these issues -- and some save points that are just a tad too far apart -- Blaster Master: Overdrive remains the most competent revisitation of the Blaster Master series.

Much like Altair himself, Assassin's Creed for the DS is an unlikable mess.

Once you've been through the process a few times, however, it gradually becomes a snooze fest.

LOH III ends a series that at first was tolerable, but with a frightening flatline in the level of quality, it only cements itself as dead-center average.

A desert island game, but only in the literal sense.